![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/e72d5483-c86f-4a8c-8b70-ae76219ed62f.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe PSNI said the women had been held on suspicion of criminal damage.<\/p>\n
Videos circulating online show one woman being spoken to at length by PSNI officers close to a cash machine.<\/p>\n
An MLA said she had been arrested for protesting outside Barclays Bank.<\/p>\n
There has been criticism of the bank\u2019s financial ties with arms companies that sell weapons to Israel. Several other branches of Barclays across the UK have previously been targeted.<\/p>\n
The woman tells officers: \u201cChildren are dying in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n
The woman – understood to be a prominent Palestinian activist – is then led away to the back of a PSNI vehicle.<\/p>\n
A second woman was also arrested at the protest.<\/p>\n
The PSNI said: \u201cPolice received a report relating to a protest in the Castle Place area of Belfast city centre on Saturday morning, May 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers attended and two people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women – one aged in her 70s and the other in her 50s \u2013 are in custody, assisting with police enquiries at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair were taken to Musgrave PSNI station, where campaigners gathered to show their support.<\/p>\n
Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan criticised the arrests.<\/p>\n
He said it was \u201cdisgraceful\u201d that one is an \u201celderly Jewish woman who has consistently and bravely campaigned for an end to Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHighlighting the genocidal, inhumane slaughter of defenceless civilians \u2014 and those who enable it \u2014 is not a crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The PSNI arrested two campaigners.<\/p>\n
Kneecap: A timeline of controversy and success<\/p>\n
Mr Sheehan added: \u201cWe will be raising our concerns directly with the PSNI.\u201d<\/p>\n
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said: \u201cAll over the world Israel’s legitimacy has utterly crumbled. And so the establishment is ramping up its repression to try and silence protestors.\u201d<\/p>\n
SDLP councillor Paul Doherty said he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the arrests.<\/p>\n
He said they happened during a peaceful protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarclays should rightfully be boycotted due to their financial ties with companies that supply weapons and military technology to Israel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand in full solidarity with these activists and call for them to be released without charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barclays Bank has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PSNI said the women had been held on suspicion of criminal damage. Videos circulating online show one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[837,1144,1814,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-128353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-palestine","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114563568661117924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}